Wanke gets 3.5 year sentence for EUR 330 bribe

The Supreme Court has issued its verdict in the corruption case of former top official of the Slovak Football Association, Vladimir Wanke, sentencing him to over 3 years in prison with no right of appeal.

The Supreme Court rejected appeals lodged by Wanke and also from the prosecutor in the case, and upheld the decision of the Special Court in Pezinok from April last year. This means Wanke will spend the next 3 years and 4 months in jail for accepting a bribe of just EUR 330 to push through the transfer of Andrej Masarovic to SK Eldus Mocenok.

It is quite astonishing how the legal system works in Slovakia sometimes, when someone is sentenced to 3 and a half years in prison for a EUR 330 bribe, while others get off for stealing millions through tenders and other corrupt behaviour, for which nobody is held accountable in the end, or kill people on roads due to irresponsible driving and don’t even get a prison sentence. Wanke should definitely be held accountable for his corrupt actions, but it is actually quite sad and verges on lawlessness as maybe all too often in Slovakia the punishment doesn’t fit the crime.